Momma's Day, garden and ramblings.

Posted Sunday, May 8, 2011, at 9:37 AM

2011 Garden of the Year?

Happy Momma's Day ladies. I've been called a Mother Hen back when I was advisor to a High School fraternity, but that never quite qualified me to get credit on this particular Sunday. I get a little edgy over all the "special days" the card industry seems to come up with, but Mother's Day is truly worthy of recognition.

Sunday is definitely my day for rambling, so I hope you can hang in there with me. My coffee filter drove me to the point of cackling like an insane person today. Two tiny, flimsy pieces of filter material and I could not get them separated for almost a full minute. Espoontoon, I have not fired up the hemp filter you gave me to try, but it will brew the VERY NEXT pot of coffee.

Looking out the window, I always seem to think of gardening so I thought I would show you my "garden" this year. I took a walk down the driveway to get the Sunday T-G and grabbed the camera to document the OTHER side of gardening. I hope it is not a sign of the day to come, but I quickly found out that I did not have the memory card in there.

Then I sat down to plug the one picture I was able to get on the resident memory and realized I was trying to plug in my Blackberry, not the camera. Yeesh, I need this first cup of coffee!

I know, I know, it is almost sacrilegious to let your garden go to wild, native plants. (weeds sounds so neglectful). But really, some of those were intentional, at least over the last few years. If you to took a close look, you could see cilantro, dill, soybean, tomato, garlic, beets, mints, bok choy, sugar snap peas, catnip, bachelor buttons, marigolds and various intentional (and unintentional) wildflowers.

I could argue that it is good to let your land "rest" occasionally to rebuild soil organisms, and generally restore itself BUT, that is not why the garden looks this way. The bottom line is that I simply did not have enough time this year to do what I should. I had to make a choice and the garden took the hit.

We had our land selectively logged this year and I have been spending about 2 hours a day cutting firewood from the tops and generally cleaning the forest. I have many "fun" hours, days and weeks ahead. That, combined with me taking the eBay classes on the road have consumed my extra time completely.

If I get more time, I will put it into cleaning the real weeds before they go to seed and may even have a fall garden, but knowing the hot dry months coming up, I will probably not have a true summer garden.

I planted a few tomatoes in containers and even one in an old stump as an experiment and will maintain the herbs and figs, but other than that, nature will be my gardener. With wonderful nature being what it is, it is not a terrible thing, but it will not be prim and proper by any means. (not that it ever really was)

Backsliders take heart! It can happen to the any of us and we recover.

So far, it is not impressive. I have another planted at the same time that seems to be taking hold well. Maybe a little extra TLC.

-- Posted by stevemills on Thu, May 12, 2011, at 1:27 PM

Let me know how the stump turns out Steve.

-- Posted by cherokee2 on Thu, May 12, 2011, at 12:13 PM

No, I don't have trouble with the water backing up. I just have trouble with the filter collapsing, which lets the coffee grounds get into the coffee. So, I use double filters and they stand up better. I will try the chocolate coffee beans, sounds good!

-- Posted by grannybee on Tue, May 10, 2011, at 12:49 PM

Thanks grannybee. The reversal trick is how I FINALLY got the two apart.

Do you have any problem with the water backing up in a double filter?

Having been in the coffee house business, I eat coffee beans, so the grounds do not phase me much. Ever try chocolate covered roasted beans? Nice change form overpowering sweetness of regular candy.

-- Posted by stevemills on Tue, May 10, 2011, at 7:10 AM

About the coffee filters, try this: Remove a small section of the filters and flip them inside-out, remove 2 filters (to keep them standing up in the coffee maker) and then turn them back right side out. I always use 2 filters to give them extra strength so we don't have coffee grounds in the pot. Try it!

-- Posted by grannybee on Mon, May 9, 2011, at 12:24 PM

Middle-Earth. I like that QC. That will be this season's theme.

10 4 leaf and a 5 leaf? Have you had your soil checked for radiation? Just kidding, but the soil must be special.

-- Posted by stevemills on Sun, May 8, 2011, at 3:45 PM

Happy Mother's to all the Mothers!!

Surprising day for me-I found a five-leaf clover this morning, on a clump of clover that I have found 10 four-leaf clovers { six in one day }. It has to be a mutation.

Also saw 2 cicadas. So they are here.

-- Posted by ckna910 on Sun, May 8, 2011, at 2:55 PM

I like the pastoral,Middle-Earth appearance of the garden.

Even your brand of neglect looks fetching.

-- Posted by quantumcat on Sun, May 8, 2011, at 12:18 PM

Thanks to cherokee2 in warning us of the expectations that the 13 year cicadas will be here in May. They are generally just annoying, but can damage young trees, shrubs or young woody growth that is pencil size.

If you have things endangered,consider covering them with a small weave netting and you may want to get it now, since it should disappear off the shelves when they actually emerge.

-- Posted by stevemills on Sun, May 8, 2011, at 9:58 AM

By the way, we have the luxury of not being seen by neighbors, so the only ones we offend with this view is ourselves.

Steve Mills and his wife have one daughter and live on a farm outside of Bell Buckle. They previously owned two coffee/ice cream shops, currently operate an internet sales company and teach classes, but his primary job involves the paper industry worldwide. Hobbies and interests lie in gardening, photography, recorded music and of course, their pets.